Google Removes Mobile Friendly Tag

Two years ago, Google added a mobile friendly tag to search results, showing users which pages are optimised for mobile. This update was closely followed by a huge mobile-friendly algorithm change that led the majority of site owners to optimise for mobile.

Here is an example of what the mobile friendly tag looked like:

In the official Webmaster Google blog, Google said that 85% of all pages in mobile search results are now mobile friendly, and therefore announced that the mobile-friendly tag will be removed from the search results.

According to Google, not only is it now not needed, but removing the mobile friendly tag will work towards creating a simplified mobile search results page.

Google Updates Schema Guidelines for Local Reviews

Google has updated its local business review guidelines around when you can and can’t use schema markup on the reviews.

The biggest change brought in as a result of the updated guidelines is that third-party reviews that aren’t produced from your site should not be marked up with schema. Only reviews that are directly produced from your site should be marked up.

It is now a requirement to allow users to post positive as well as negative reviews, rather than holding back negative feedback and only showing positive reviews.

Google Introduces Search Live Coverage Carousel

On 29 August 2016, Google announced their newest upcoming feature, the Search live coverage carousel.

The idea of the live coverage carousel is to allow Google to surface content quicker than it currently can. It’s designed to allow users to find live content about events such as “sports, elections, and breaking news as soon as it’s available on your site.”

The new feature is currently open to publishers as a pilot feature, and there are some certain requirements that must be followed by publishers in order for them to take part.

A list of requirements, as well as more information on the feature, can be found at the official Google Developers blog.